It doesn't get better then this.

Steve wanted to take the boat out one last time before we stored it for the winter. He talked to Taryn and she was able to come out that Friday. We were up to the cabin and when we woke up it was 35 degrees. That really doesn't make you want to get your swimming suit on.

We meet Taryn in Duchesne and headed up to the lake. The site that greeted us was pure glass.

Steve hasn't had really nice water this year so we let him go first. He said that he couldn't figure out what this sound was when he was out skiing, but it finally dawned on his the water was so smooth you could hear your ski cutting through it.

I went next and words can't describe skiing on glass. I almost fell twice because the water was so smooth that my ski slipped on me. I do remember going behind the boat and thinking it was rough. Which is funny because you usually go behind the boat because it's smoother.

Have I ever told you that Starvation is my favorite lake. Not to mention but I was baptized just over to the right of this picture. It was a great day just us and a few fishing boats.

I blame my parents.

We were lucky this week and got to go to the cabin Wednesday after I worked. Our goal this week was to paint the wood stove in the sheep camp and put in a new floor. When we were done with that we were going to rest and relax and just enjoy being up there. Wednesday I did relax and after cleaning up all the flies. (That is the part I hate about Fall up there) I just relaxed and laid around. Meanwhile Steve went on a four-wheeler ride up to the troughs to see if any of the cows were still up there and saw a herd of elk with a huge bull. He said they were running really hard, so he started to look around to see what they were running from and saw a huge bear. He was a long way away so he wasn't worried. I told him that when he goes alone on these rides is when he sees things. Thursday morning we took a long ride up Rhodes Canyon looking for cows, then went down to visit with my Mom and I spent the rest of the afternoon cleaning the cabin and cooking dinner. Friday morning we were up early and I was ready to do something. Two days of not accomplishing anything was killing me. I helped Steve get the stove out of the sheep camp and then hauled 15 wheelbarrows of dirt to cover up where we had run the sprinkler lines and thought I would work a little bit on the top half of the rock wall.

This time we used bigger rocks from the field. It only took about 10 trips in the ranger to get all the rocks. We have worked that vehicle to death and at times had it so loaded down with rocks that Steve had a hard time getting it to turn. Once I got going I knew I had to finish it this weekend. I think it looks great and to think that it cost nothing. The test will come next spring seeing if it will hold up. Steve laughed at me and told me that he knew I wouldn't wait until next year to finish this wall. I blame my parents for teaching me how to work and not be lazy. Now we just need to lay some gravel down on the four-wheeler road and we are good.

Steve put this new floor in the Sheep-Camp and it looks much better then the old one. We ran out of paint for the stove so pictures of that will come later.

We are done, at least for this year.

For the first couple of months this spring this is what our yard looked like. We were full of water. Poor Steve spent weeks digging a trench to try and drain all the water, he even ran a big pipe at the base of the dam all the way through the yard to the other end of the fence to try and dry us out.

His next plan after getting all the water drained was to pull down some of the side hill and fill in the low spot and level out the yard. Our wonderful neighbor Tom is very generous and told us that we could use his back- hoe anytime. The only problem was this summer Tom and his back- hoe were not at his cabin. We were getting ready to call and have someone come do the work for us. By some miracle Steve ran into Tom's dad and discovered they were bringing up the back-hoe that day and wouldn't be using it for a couple of days so it was free for us to use.

Steve is pretty amazing and leveled it out pretty good. The only problem is every square inch of earth up there is full of rocks. So after he leveled it all out, we spent weeks raking up and getting rid of rocks.

This is what my socks would look like at the end of the day. I also have the habit of wiping my face with my gloves when I sweat so my face looked about that dirty also. I didn't let Steve take a picture.

We had the problem of what to do with all those rocks and we also needed to secure the hillside so I thought of stacking the rocks up to build a wall. We had to make a four-wheeler road and used rocks to section that off. Up above the lower rock wall is the road for the four-wheelers. I am not finished with the wall, but the other half will happen next year when I recover from all this work. We will cut back the hill all even and terrace another rock wall up to the top. I wanted to plant some plants in the lower terrace but the fill is all rocks so I am thinking that will be a rock garden and the grandkids and Taylor can put their cool rocks in it.

I'm excited that our lawn about doubled with this and hopefully next week I will see evidence of new grass.

It is amazing everything we have done with rocks up there. We had to go looking for some big rocks to be our base and it's amazing that within 1/4 mile of the cabin we have four very different kinds of rocks. Hopefully it will all blend together and look great.